"While the separate nationalities all inherit parts of the European tradition, we as Catholics inherit the whole. It was our predecessors who founded and built up the European unity. We are the heirs of Constantine and St. Leo, of St. Benedict and St. Gregory, of Boniface and Charlemagne, of Alfred and St. Stephen of Hungary and St. Louis of France. There is nothing in the European past that has not been formed or modified by Catholic influences, and even the heresiarchs and revolutionaries have come from us and been inspired by an exaggerated or partial devotion to some element in the common tradition. Thus Catholics have an historical mission to maintain and strengthen the unity of Western civilization against the destructive forces that are attempting its total subversion."
-Christopher Dawson
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